At the Helm

Father and my brother Koen have traveled to Sumatra for expedition, and will be unavailable except for special situations by teleport, though they prefer not to be interrupted. Dr. Mason recently came into possession of photographs of Koen's mother, Lucian. Among the collection are images taken by Dr. Jerimiah Mason on his expedition to Sumatra where he encountered the Bloodtail Neko tribe and captured her, as well as some later photos of Lucian in servitude to the Mason household. Darien would have barely been in his teens when the last photo was taken.

Father used these photographs to conduct a séance, which as a Reanimator he has never failed to accomplish with the utmost precision. But in this case her spirit was not recovered. To him, this is proof that Lucian has not yet expended all of her nine lives.

I shall post a few of these pictures..though some are too gruesome to share even in sepia. If by any chance some Caledonian adventurer can identify the stone structures or other geography I will telegraph Dr. Mason immediately so he can narrow his search.




Our eternal thanks to Miss Emilly Orr for discovering these prints.

I am managing the Bloodwing Foundation in Dr. Mason's absence. I am also training my new clockwork sister, Hinako Kohime.

I will be hosting the next Steelhead Ball this Friday as well. I have already found a sponsor, Caledon's small, cute, fuzzy, talented and distinguished Mr. One-Was (1wuz) Gray. I believe a Best in Tiny Avatars event would the most appropriate festivity, which I shall suggest at the Town Meeting tonight at 7:30.

I do hope Dr. Mason will return for the breaking ground of the Hospital, which would occur next week, Guvna providing. I hope you succeed in your quest for you and my brother's sake, Father. I hope she is alive, and I hope she wishes to be found. Do return safely.

~Qli

Thank you all for a lovely Rezday!

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures, but I was too busy hosting and rebooting..but thank you all for attending, and such lovely gifts! And thanks to Koreshan Point for sponsoring the event! Even if their amusement park is in some need of repairs it is a lovely place to visit..it's one-stop shopping for dollforms like mine if you wish one!

~Qli

Griefers from Outer Space

The day started wonderfully enough with a transmission from Agent Hassanov. He had taken my idea of modifying steampowered elephants for use as walking fire engines and amplified it to a scale that only he can accomplish. Behlold..the stampowered wooly mammoth..STAMPIUS MAXIMUS!



Even the reserved Miss Kattrynne was overheard to say, "That is something!" Howerver thing quickly took a turn for the worst. Just as Sir JJ and I were introducing ourselves to a new member of our polite society, I heard an engine drone behind me that could not have come from the mammoth. I did not even have to turn my head..the look of terror on the newcomer's face told me everything. The Martians had come to Steelhead.

Oh, that the mammoth were fully operational! It only stood in place as the orbs harried me and its creator. I called for reinforcements from Caledon and gratefully they arrived. The spacecraft seemed to have developed resistance to my ZRD slugthrowers, but likewise I had strengthened my armour to resist their plasma cannons. I did close in enough on one of them to find something unexpected. Humanoid lifesigns..and a familiar one at that. Perhaps it was a glitch.

And of course, Barthelmess arrives on cue after the all-clear is sounded. Don't the Men in Black always arrive after the aliens leave? Hmm..perhaps he is more than he seems.

Sheriff Ortega, I need answers. Exactly HOW did Mr. Barthelmess wipe out your kin? "Exploiting their weaknesses" can mean anything. Silver bullets? Fire? Magic? Griefing clowns?

I don't know about he rest of you, but alien invasions are quickly going the way of werewolf attack.

Perhaps Qli Steele was right. The only answer to keeping the homelands safe are through the application of raw power. The next time you see those floating eyeballs over your sim..

BAN THE BRUTES!

System Repairs Complete

There still seems to be some trouble with the engine, only one exhaust pipe is working, but that may be a symptom of gridwide troubles. JJ tried to cheer me up for my upcoming rezday by taking me shopping in Victoria City. I steered away from a Dark Victorian dress (Celtic knots aren't really my style) and towards a more austere riding dress from Amusing, with boots by the same maker dress. The boots promptly vanished after the system crash, but she is replacing them with a sit of heels not on her kiosk. Thank you Miss Messmer!

I invited the new Bloodwing to the Foundation so I could speak with her..albeit slowly and tentatively through translation devices. The encounter is described in my recent Bloodwing Foundation post. An addendum..shortly after the encounter she reappeared with a female friend to peruse the art galleries. They were especially interested in Sysperia's works so I referred them to her gallery. Just before she left Madam Sperber called herself my Mother, then kissed me.

I must assume Bloodwing is adjusting well to the new form.

~Qli

virtual soda still tastes like prims

How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life

Most disturbing to me is this:

Although it won't comment officially, IBM is understood to be working to create a "virtual universe" by building software that will allow avatars to leap from Second Life to World of Warcraft as easily as we now move from Google to Yahoo.

So not only are we being invaded by corporate entities, but we'll soon be invaded by Orks too! Another reason for Caledon to set up a defensive wall on our eastern border!

WARNING! Fangirl Circuit Overload!

*faints dead away*

Rebuilding..and a New Threat

In the aftermath that followed my destruction at the hands of the Martians, Father was so busy tending to the wounded that he only had time to affix a cybernetic arm he purchased from P. Irate's to my shoulder, leaving me to do the rest. It was simple enough to replicate the arm and and make legs with the same design. I am back to using the furnace unit as well until my sephiroth replenish their energy.

And now of all times, the Hunter Jobias Barthelmess has chosen this moment to darken the streets of Steelhead. I recognized him from the Sheriff's journals..though he also bears a striking resemblance to a Gallifreyan called the Master. (I will have to contact Dr. Sputnik to make sure this is only a threat to Steelhead and not the entire Continuum!) Sheriff Ortega speaks of him with fear in his eyes. He has laid waste to entire packs of werewolves in the Old Country. The Sheriff claims he is a threat to every non-human sentient he encounters.



Steelhead is a city based on the rule of Law. I cannot stop him until I find him in the midst of some dastardly plot, or the Sheriff provides a warrant..or even extradition papers. Otherwise I would not hesitate to leave a crater where he stands.

How's This for a Pedigree?

http://www.myheritage.com

Match Result "Tim Curry - 70%" rejected from sample.

The Future Caught Up with Me

My doppleganger and I had a long..talk. I was a captive audience due to mu incomplete repair.

Her signature green glow was now interlaced with curcuitry. She had joined the Replicators..the survivors of Ancient Avaria who surrendered their bodies to a fusion of magic and technology to weather their world's Apocalypse.

The Motherboard had welcomed her with open arms. I asked her if she had forsaken that singing mad scientist Doctor Steel. She only laughed. I suspect her only true master is herself.

She chided me for trying to put out a plasma rire with calcium carbonate. For not intervening when the wargames of the Militias had collapsed.

"You should have taken over" she said. "That was only a Martian scouting expedition..and they burned down half of Caledon! What do you think they said when they sent their signal back to Mars? That Caledon is WEAK and ripe for the taking!"

I pointed out that Caledon had in factwon the battle.

"Barely, little sister. With an improvised barrage of lead shot, magic, and chickens. CHICKENS! Caledon needs a true leader.."

I clearly saw where she was going with her ranting and stopped her in her tracks.

"Oh no, little Qli..not me..YOU!"

"You're malfunctioning worse than ever! I'm a firefighter, not a Governor!"

"Even you admitted that you need more power. They shattered you! They will come back again and again..stronger than the last. Bloodwing is a shadow of what he was and Koen is a coward! Consider what you are willing to do to save who and what you love the most!"

And with that, she vanished in a crackle of energy..leaving me much to consider.

~Qlippothic Projects

I Woke to Her Serenade

There once was a toy, a robotic toy,
with a crank sticking out of her brain.
She never performed with sadness or joy
She was just simply programmed to sing.

So she sang.
So she sang.
So she sang.
So she sang..to the melody

With no one around this robot fell down,
and the crank it broke off of her head.
With the jar to her hard drive she felt all alive:
The old robot she used to be dead.

There was rage in her brain!
There was pain in her frame!
There was love, there was hunger and strife!
Shee felt lonely, rejected, at times disconnected!
No answer to the meaning of life!

So she sang.
So she sang.
So she sang.
So she sang.

Sweet dreams are made of this.
Who am I to disagree?
Travel the world and the seven seas.
Everybody's looking for something.

Lullabye-bye, Doctor Steel. Lyrics modified for gender.

somebody put me together

Dr. Mason repaired my spinal column and one arm and left me on the bench to repair myself. It's not that hard..I've done it before. Especially now that I've repaired the other arm. But I don't even know if I should..

I failed. Last night I failed as a firefighter, and I failed again as a soldier. I used the most powerful weaponry the 19th Century has to offer..and I even violated my own code by resorting to my weapons cache from the 21st Century..yet still I was only a nuisance to those destructive orbs..I still hear the horrible drone of their engines in my memory banks!

..I barely had time to look up to see plasma rays battering me..eating away at my armour..then my internal systems..I rained down into the crater, my glowing sephiroth spinning like muticolored marbles in a bowl and bouncing off of my dismembered limbs until they rested at the center.

Next thing I knew, my brother Koen was standing over me, gold slitted eyes striking against his silhouette in the smoke-filled dawn. I could barely make out his face, but I could see his ears betrayed his despair. He lifed me by just holding my head in his paws. That is when I realized that's all I had left connected to me. Luckily I had hid my Soul Chip in the base of my skull. I tried to speak, but I had not tongue and no jaw to move.

Then he put me in a sack. And then he started loading the sack with the spheres...so they all jostled around me, in completely the wrong order. It felt like someone turned my soul into a jigsaw puzzle and kept trying to put back the pieces incorrectly. Then everything else..shards of the demon's bones I was built with. Random gears..pieces of my armour..and then scrap that definitely did not come from me! Couldn't he tell what was part of me and what wasn't?

Finally I was emptied onto the table, Father meticulously clearing the shrapnel away to place my skull and all the sephiroth in the right position..and they connect themselves to me immediately. I could tell by the exhaustion in his eyes and the tattered and bloody state of his clothes that he had spent a night handling triage.

"I'm proud of you, Qli. I truly am."

I could only divert my eyes from him. No lids to shut, no tears to shed.

I feel so..useless. Like a..yes, like a doll. My appearance is a matter applying metal, or porcelain, or volcanic demonflesh with an optional wrapping of human skin. Add a cocktail of blood from various species and voila. A coin-operated girl trying to be human and superhuman at once..and failing in both.